"How, Rijana?" I asked with weariness as I sat on the ground beside my master. I didn't need to turn around to know that the mage was behind me because I had heard her footsteps; unlike her elven companions, Rijana was not accustomed to walking silently in the forest. I opened the rectangular shaped, hard leather pouch at Kalistra's waist and started pulling out the potions until I found the one I sought: a Potion of Stamina. Once I put the rest of the vials back into the pouch, I held up the stamina potion in my right hand and began to pull on the stopper with my left hand.

Suddenly, someone grabbed my left hand, preventing me from removing the stopper. "You shouldn't give Kalistra that potion just yet," the mage warned. "The poison will immediately drain the recovered stamina out of her."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" I huffed in frustration. "I can't leave her unconscious like this." I will readily admit that I was too upset with the situation to be thinking clearly. Frankly, I was still in shock at my master's condition. She was a level 20 master swordswoman and undoubtedly one of the fiercest fighters in the Kingdom of Merlin. Yet, she was brought down by an assassin's poison?

It would be laughable if the circumstances weren't so serious. If my master remained in her current condition, then I will need to carry her for the rest of the journey to Bristol. I wasn't concerned for my personal safety per se because I was confident that Rijana, Bjoukia, and Bjoukin will accompany me and they will protect me if necessary. The problem was that if Kalistra remained in her current condition, then she will not be able to discharge her duties as a Judge in the Melee Tournament. Then, the rumors will fly regarding what happened to her; even if I perform extremely well in the tournament, people will be talking about her rather than me. Thus, I need to find a cure for Kalistra before the tournament begins.

Additionally, I was upset with myself rather than my master. If Kalistra had more confidence in my fighting abilities, then she would NOT have deceived me into staying in her hideout while she went after the contract killers. An extra pair of eyes could have warned her of the assassin's presence and perhaps, the outcome would have been different. The fact that she felt the need to leave me behind bothered me more than I cared to admit. Was I wasting my time training as a swordsman at the dojo? Should I change my profession instead?

"I agree that you shouldn't leave Kalistra in her current condition," Rijana replied as she finally removed her hand. It was clear to her that I was becoming more and more upset. She tried to change my negative outlook by offering me hope. "The solution I had in mind was a way to boost her stamina regeneration, or at least enough to overcome her constant 10 point reduction in stamina."

"How?" I asked again.

The mage reached into her pouch and sorted through a number of gemstones. Finally, she plucked the one she sought and gave it to me.

I held the gemstone closer to the campfire in order to see it better. The stone was about the size of an American quarter coin. It was translucent and light green in color, with a smooth surface. It was slightly oval shaped and resembled an eye. It was similar to a jade stone but not quite the same thing.

"This is a Cat's Eye," Rijana identified. "I can imbue the stone with an effect to boost Stamina regeneration by 5 points per second. Combined with Kalistra's natural stamina regeneration, it should be enough to overcome the constant 10 points drain from the poison effect," she explained. "And then you can give her the stamina potion to help her awaken."

I finally turned around to face the spellcaster. Hope renewed in my heart. "Can you really do it?" I asked her as I put the Potion of Stamina back in Kalistra's leather pouch. Assuming that the mage was correct, then I should delay giving my master the stamina potion to avoid wasting it.

"I am an Enchanter," Rijana smiled while pointing at her dark gray robe. "The gray color of my robe should have made that clear to you."

"Sorry," I apologized. "I haven't received lessons from any mages yet due to a lack of time."

The enchanter held up her hand. "It's quite understandable, milord. The commoners in Tregome have talked a lot about you and your feats ever since you arrived in town just a few days ago. But let me talk more about the magical solution to your master's problem. Enchantments are expensive because the greater the enchantment, the higher quality the item must be in order to serve as the vessel to hold the enchantment. If an inferior vessel is used, then it will break sooner rather than later and the embedded enchantment will disappear."

I looked directly into her green eyes. By throwing in the words "expensive" and "higher quality" into her explanation, Rijana was obviously hinting at the cost of the item that she was proposing to make for Kalistra. I already knew that magic items usually cost a lot of money. In my mind, the only questions were how much the enchanted Cat's Eye gemstone will cost and whether I had the proper sum on my person since I was nowhere near a bank right now.

I decided right then that if I had the money, then I will pay it no matter the cost. The reason was simple: Kalistra was my first friend in this gaming world (or on Earth 2 if we want to be technically correct here) and she meant the world to me. She took care of me even if she did it grudgingly at times. Her personal sense of Honor and Dignity was inspiring and admirable. Under her tutelage, she made me a better person. I had no doubt that I would have died already without her protection. I owed her my life and thus, I will gladly pay whatever it cost to help Kalistra recover from the poison. Furthermore, I could not imagine my master being weak and feeble for the rest of her life. If there was a way to ameliorate the effects of the poison within her body, then I want Kalistra to have it. With that settled, I took the direct approach with the enchanter. "How much?"

Rijana looked away for a moment; she was unwilling to meet my eyes. "The Cat's Eye itself will cost half a platinum coin. In addition, I will need to charge the non-guild rate for my service because you aren't a member of the Mage Guild. The service charge is 50% of the cost of the vessel," she said. Her green eyes finally met mine and hers were apologetic.

"In other words, you want 750 gold coins for the enchanted Cat's Eye?" I asked in a neutral tone of voice. While it was a lot of money, I was happy inside because I knew that I had enough money to pay for the magic item. Additionally, I had a feeling that, once Kalistra found out the cost of the gemstone, she will try to repay me by betting on me at the Melee Tournament. Thus, the 750 gold coins were likely to be a temporary loan on my master's behalf.

"Yes," Rijana nodded in confirmation. She was feeling miserable inside because she had no leeway in reducing or even waiving the service fee unless she was a Master Enchanter, and she wasn't one at this point. While I was a nobleman, she was doubtful that I carried that kind of money on me because it was so risky to travel with a heavy purse when the possibility of encountering bandits on the road was high.

Without fanfare, I took off my left boot and turned it upside down. The hidden platinum coin rolled out of the boot and into my palm. "Here," I said and passed the coin to her.

The enchanter's eyes widened at the sight of the valuable coin. She had never held a platinum coin before. It absolutely shocked her to discover that I was carrying it while traveling. Rijana took a moment to recover from her shock. "I'm sorry, but I don't have 250 gold coins to give you back as change right now," she said. The enchanter started sweating and fervently hoped that I will not catch her little white lie. While it was true that she did not carry that much gold coins on her, Rijana retained a number of high-value gems to practice her trade. For her to give a gem or two to the nobleman in lieu of the 250 gold would dramatically reduce her earning potential from enchanting those gemstones.

"Call it an IOU then," I replied dismissively. "I may need you to enchant something else in the future. Can you make the enchanted Cat's Eye tonight?" I asked as I handed the Cat's Eye back to her.

"I will start right away. It will take a few hours but I should be finished by dawn," the mage replied. She looked around for a quiet spot and suddenly remembered my hideout. "Milord, would it be okay if I use your hideout for my work? I need a quiet place in order to focus," she explained.

"Of course," I agreed readily.

Rijana bowed deeply and then crawled into Kalistra's Hideout. Sitting cross legged in the center of the smooth rock, she placed the Cat's Eye on the ground before her and started chanting with her eyes closed.

Seeing that my business transaction with his leader was completed, the ranger spoke up. "Milord, you should get some rest," Bjoukin said. "You have a Melee Tournament to enter tomorrow," he reminded me.

"We'll wake you up as soon as Rijana is finished making the enchanted item," Bjoukia reassured me with a friendly smile.

I looked at the twins and nodded. Until then, I didn't realize just how exhausted I was. I was running on my feet for most of the day with Kalistra until Jasla in her human form of Alsaj took me to the Fla'en ruins, which then took up most of my afternoon. My master tried to make up for the lost time by running until we reached her hideout. Afterward, I slept inside Kalistra's Hideout until the contract killers fought off a dire wolf pack during the night, and then Kalistra made a bad decision to go after the men on her own.

I looked at my master and studied her form. She truly looked frail and vulnerable in her sleep. I decided to take a spot on the ground next to her. I laid down flat on my back and I quickly fell asleep.

#

I felt my arm being shaken but my eyes remained glued shut. I dreamed of being home again. I was playing the new Merlin game on my personal computer, and I was having a tough time in power leveling my character.

"WAKE UP!" Someone yelled in my ear.

The dream was obliterated from my mind as I returned to the present. I immediately sat up and I bumped heads with someone. OW! I ignored the "-1 Health" notification as I turned my head to see just who had awakened me so rudely. The perpetrator was Bjoukin, who had fallen on his behind. His eyes had a dazed look, which I recognized as being stunned. Apparently, the ranger was inadvertently headbutted by me, took a spill, and incurred the stunned condition temporarily. I rose to my feet and helped pulled him up as well. "I hope that's not the elven custom to wake people up," I cracked a joke as I saw the brightening sky.

"It's not," a female voice said.

I turned to the direction of Kalistra's hideout. "Good morning to you, too, Rijana." I saw the puffy bags under her eyes and I felt guilty at my insistence that the enchanter finished making the magic item for Kalistra ASAP. "Are you finished?" I asked.

"Catch!" Rijana threw something at me.

I caught it with both hands. When I looked into my palms, I saw the Cat's Eye encircled within a thin layer of gold along the widest circumference of the gemstone and attached to a red ribbon.

Bjoukia peered closely at the necklace. "Wow, it looks so pretty!" she gasped. "I'm so jealous," she smiled at me and batted her long eyelashes at me.

Uh-oh! "Sorry, I can't afford to buy a second one to give you," I replied sheepishly. It was true. I wasn't 100% certain how much I had left, but it was definitely a LOT less than 750 gold coins. Whenever I reach Bristol, I will need to visit the bank and make a withdrawal.

The beautiful elf laughed. "I'm only joking." Her face turned serious. "Should I put the amulet on Kalistra for you, or do you want to reserve the honors for yourself?" she asked.

My face turned crimson at the thought of putting the amulet around the cat girl's neck. "Um, if you would be so kind?"

She removed her gauntlets and then she took the Cat's Eye from my hand. Bjoukia smiled flirtatiously as our fingers touched briefly.

"Stop teasing him, sister!" Bjoukin yelled.

The fighter made a face and pouted. With light footsteps, she walked over to Kalistra and knelt before the sleeping cat girl. Bjoukin had a mischievous grin on her face as she tied the red ribbon around my master's neck. "Okay, done," the elf announced as she rose to her feet and took a few steps back. Who knew how the cat girl will react to being "claimed" in this manner? Bjoukin stifled a giggle.

Invoking my Magic Sense, I saw the Cat's Eye emit a light yellow glow for a brief instant as the enchantment took effect on the amulet's wearer. Growing confident in Rijana's magic item, I took out the Potion of Stamina from my master's pouch and carefully fed her the potion. Then I rose back to my feet and I paced the ground back and forth impatiently while keeping my eye on Kalistra's stamina bar.

After a few minutes, the cat girl began to stir. Kalistra opened her eyes and saw the brightening sky. The last thing she remembered was the poison in the throwing star draining her stamina to zero. The cat girl saw that her stamina bar was being replenished. She turned her head and saw us standing nearby. She recognized the newcomers as adventurers who were friendly with me. She sat up and asked, "How long was I out?"

Overcome with relief and happiness, I knelt before my master and gave her a hug.

Surprised by my action, Kalistra allowed me to hug her for a handful of seconds. Finally, she poked her claw into my right shoulder.

Ow! I ignored the "-2 Health" notification and released her. I looked into her pale green eyes and said, "Welcome back, Kalistra."